San Diego  Kensington just wouldn’t be Kensington without the hundreds of decorative, old-fashioned street lights that line the historic neighborhood’s curving roads and avenues.

At least that’s what the community’s residents decided last week when they joined a growing list of San Diego neighborhoods that have begun voluntarily taxing themselves to preserve ornamental street lights and the charming ambience they create.

“They define the community and they’re what makes these older neighborhoods special,” said David Moty, chairman of the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group. “It’s what people notice about Kensington.”

Several other neighborhoods have also agreed to pay tax surcharges to preserve their historic street lights, including Talmadge, Rolando and parts of Point Loma. And Mission Hills, which never previously had historic lights, recently took the unusual step of paying extra taxes so the city would add them.

“There are so many historic homes in Mission Hills that these lights fit much better visually,” said Janet O’Dea, a local historian who spearheaded the Mission Hills effort.

The community campaigns have been prompted by the city’s policy of paying only for “cobra” head street lights, which cost less and more effectively illuminate the road, partly because they are taller.

“The city is dedicated to providing us lights, but not necessarily historic lights,” said Kensington resident Don Taylor, who helped create the neighborhood’s new tax surcharge program. “The cobra head lights are ugly and cheap.”

Taylor said street lights became a hot issue in Kensington when residents started noticing that the city had begun installing cobra lights in place of historic lights that had reached the end of their lifespan.

“All of us got into this because we see the streetlights as a great historic resource and something that makes Kensington the beautiful community that it is,” said Taylor, whose house was built in 1927. “These neighborhoods were built in the 1920s and the lights give them that flavor.”

Neighborhoods can chip in money to preserve those lights by forming a maintenance assessment district, which is a complex process. San Diego has more than 50 such districts, but most of them cover expenses other than lighting, such as tree trimming, graffiti removal or sidewalk power washing.

A majority vote of property owners is required to create a district, which forces community leaders trying to form them to be strategic.

For example, Kensington was divided into six separate areas for its vote. That allows the district to charge higher fees to neighborhoods getting the most perceived benefits and largest boost in property values, and charge lower fees to neighborhoods receiving less.

About one-third of Kensington — everything south of Adams Avenue and west of Van Dyke Avenue — was left out completely, while five other areas will start paying between $72 and $85 per year depending on the number of ornamental street lights and other factors.

The fees were approved last week by a majority in each of the five areas, so 1,343 total property owners are expected to begin generating $110,362 per year. That money will restore historic street lights needing repair, replace cobra lights with historic lights and maintain those lights into the future.